I'm purposefully late to meet Kyla at the bar. From a vantage point across the street, I watch her arrive and disappear inside. I take my time, pulling at my cuffs and buttoning my charcoal jacket, giving her just long enough to find a seat at the bar and order a drink.
This goes against all my usual protocols for dating, but it's necessary to keep to the role-play I promised Kyla. All she knows is that we pretend to be strangers. We pretend to be the kind of people who meet and hook up, without any of the preliminaries of a normal date. It's like a movie; love or lust at first sight. There's a freedom that comes from letting go of all the normal parts of meeting someone and hooking up.
When I stroll across the road, I do so with a slightly different gait, leaning back more than usual, with my thumb hooked into the pocket of my gray pants. I'm Aaron Cole tonight. A banker who makes truckful’s of money and doesn't give a fuck about anyone. My aim is to pick up a woman and fuck her so hard she squirts. I'll leave her with a sore pussy and her mouth flapping open with awe and no way of contacting me the next day.
The door to the bar is heavy, and inside the music is loud with a thumping beat. There are more men than women, and for a second, I worry that some other dude is going to be chatting up my girl, but as I scan the bar, there Kyla is, looking like a rose amongst thorns, nursing a colorful drink.
I approach slowly and face the bar, waving down the barman so that I can order a drink. I don't usually drink bourbon, but Aaron Cole does. He likes it neat for the extra burn when he swallows it. Out of the corner of my eye, I take in Kyla.
There's something very different about her tonight. She's secured her hair into a tight, high style that pulls her eyes up at the corners, eyes that are outlined in thick black kohl. Her dress is a deep purple silk number with thin straps and a cut that clings to every curve. On her feet, she wears silver shoes that would look more at home on an actress at the Oscars than a woman sitting alone at Connor's bar. I think that Kyla has developed a character of her own.
"I don't know why you're looking at me like that," she says, sipping her drink through a straw and raising an eyebrow in my direction.
"Excuse me?"
"You're looking at me out of the corner of your eye. It's not polite."
I blink, taken aback for a second, but then I'm back in my role and Aaron's slow wolfish smile forms on my face. "Listen, lady. I'm allowed to look where the fuck I want and at whatever the fuck I want."
"Oh yeah," she says. "And I don't have a say?"
"No fucking way," I hiss, noticing the way her eyes sparkle as my voice gets low and rough. Taking a step forward, I rest my hand next to her on the bar. "You need to watch your mouth, lady. I'm a decent person, but I can guarantee that there are assholes in here who'd slap the lipstick from your lips if you talk to them that way."
"A decent person?" she sneers. "There aren't any decent people in this bar. Just lonely, broken souls, looking to cut themselves on other lonely broken people."
"Is that what you are?" I ask, raising my eyebrow. Kyla's good at this. Better than I thought she'd be.
"Why'd you want to know?"
"’Cause cutting myself on you seems like the best idea I've had all week."
When Kyla drops her lashes and shakes her head, my heart thumps in my chest. With role-play, you never know how it's going to turn out, but Kyla has it down. She's pushing a button that I never knew I had.
"You've got a smooth tongue, that's for sure." She rests her fingers on my arm and narrows her eyes. "Men with a smooth tongue are the most dangerous."
"Not if they know how to use it," I say. "Then they're the most fun."
She snorts, taking her hand away, and begins rooting around in her purse. A lipstick and a small gold mirror are retrieved, and she begins to paint her lips in a color that goes perfectly with the tone of her dress. As she holds her lips in an O shape, all I can think about is what my cock would look like covered with that shade of lipstick. I bet Kyla gives good head. I bet she'd get on her knees for the right man. The kind of man she's building Aaron Cole up to be.